"In baseball season, I'll say I like baseball," the Oconee County junior said. "In football season, I'll say I like football."

In the spring, Aiken was a sophomore playing in Oconee County's infield as the Warriors made a run to the Class AAA semifinals. This fall, he is the Warriors' starting running back and one of the team's most reliable athletes.

It has been four months since the Oconee County baseball team's playoff run ended in a two-game sweep against Perry, but Aiken thinks the momentum from that season might still be around the school.

"I hope so," he said. "It definitely started off good."

Oconee County won its season opener for the first time since 2005 last Friday, beating East Jackson at home 17-14. In 2005, the Warriors beat Liberty County to start the season 20-12 and finished the year 5-6 with a playoff appearance.

In the win against the Eagles, Aiken had to fill in at quarterback when starter Santonio Brown went down with a shoulder stinger. Aiken scored the game-winning touchdown on a 1-yard run halfway through the fourth quarter.

Aiken was listed as the team's third-string quarterback, but with Brown out and backup Connor White still nursing an injury, third string became first string.

"We did work on that with him because he's the third-string quarterback, be didn't think we'd get down to the third string," Oconee County coach Mitch Olson said. "He knew what was going on and what to say. It was no big deal. We felt confident in him. We actually felt that was the best way to hold onto the ball."

The move didn't create any extra anxiety for Aiken, who finished the game with 105 yards and a touchdown on 22 rushes.

"I knew the plays and knew what to do," he said. "It was pretty much like running back - just snap it and go."

Aiken has been a running back since he started playing football at around age 4. But last year, he was a backup running back behind senior Jamie Stephens and spent most of his time at receiver.

Aiken took a handful of snaps at running back when Stephens went down with an injury, but this is the first year he is the team's primary running threat.

"He just played receiver because we had a good running back that was experienced," Olson said. "Davis has good hands. We wanted to find some place to put him."

Brown participated in full-contact practice on Tuesday and is expected to be back behind center when the Warriors host Stephens County on Friday. It will be the first time in five years that Oconee County will go into its second game with a winning record.

"It helps a lot. It gives us a lot of confidence going into this week," Aiken said. "But Stephens has a lot of confidence, too, because they just beat a tough Hart County team. It should be a good game."

The Warriors beat Stephens County for the first time in five seasons last year and for just the fourth time in 16 meetings between the two teams.

On opposite sides of Region 8-AAA, Friday's game will have little bearing on the playoffs (unless it plays into a tiebreaker), but it might provide a glimpse of things to come.

"These next two games give us an idea of how we stack up against the other side of the region," Olson said. "These are teams we could possibly play again in Week 10 (in a play-in game)."

Regardless of the opponent, the Warriors want to keep the taste of winning in their mouths.

"It feels like the whole team has a real desire to win," Aiken said. "We've all been working really hard and playing with a lot of heart. Getting the first win meant a lot. We get that feeling of winning and we want to get it again."